Ben
Burkett, NFFC President: Ben is a former Indian Springs manager
of 16 years and current director of the Mississippi Association of Cooperatives,
the local arm of The Federation of Southern Cooperatives. Ben is a farmer
and community activist. Ben represents NFFC on the Via Campesina Food
Sovereignty Comission and is a board member of the Community Food Security
Coalition (CFSC).

The
Federation, an umbrella organization now composed of 35 coops representing
12,000 African American farm families from Texas to North Carolina,
assists farmers in land retention and the development of economically
self-sufficient communities. Member coops purchase supplies and receive
marketing, financial and technical assistance through the federation.
Ben is involved in several coops, believing that that is the only way
you can make it in the rural south.

He
has traveled to Senegal, South Africa, Kenya, Nicaragua, Lebanon, and
Zimbabwe with FSC, exchanging knowledge and information with small-scale
farmers. He in turn hosted West African honey, rice and vegetable producers
who visited the United States to learn irrigation, marketing and packaging
techniques from African American farmers.

Dena
Hoff, NFFC Vice President: Dena represents the Northern Plains Resource
Council on the NFFC Board and Chairs NFFC's Trade Task Force. She raises
sheep, cattle, alfalfa, corn, and edible dry beans, among other crops,
on their farm in Glendive, Montana since 1979. She is an active member
of her rural community, serving on the Water Commission and the local
food cooperative. She is also active with the Western Organization of
Resource Councils.

Dena
is the co-chair or the North American region of Via Campesina (US/Canada/Mexico)
and serves on the International Coordinating Council for Via Campesina.
She has represented NFFC at international meetings - at Seattle, Cancun,
Mexico City, Geneva, and most recently at the FAO meeting in Rome.

John
Kinsman, Secretary: John Kinsman is President of the Family Farm
Defenders (FFD). John is a dairy farmer from Lime Ridge, Wisconsin who
raises 36 cows on a 150-acre farm-80 acres devoted to hay and pasture,
70 acres devoted to woodland management.

Through
FFD, John works to forge new consumer-farmer direct marketing strategies
for dairy products. His organization is now marketing Cedar Grove cheese,
which carries a label that clearly identifies that the cheese is produced
by family farmers and is free of genetically engineered products.

John
also advocated for efforts to ban use of recombinant bovine growth hormone
(rBGH) and educated farmers and consumers about its negative effects.
As a result of his efforts, the Food and Drug Administration forestalled
the rBGH approval for seven years and bovine growth hormone is now struggling
in the marketplace. He traveled around the world to talk with farmers
about the potential dangers of genetic engineering in agriculture and
the need to change US dairy policy.

Brad
Wilson, Treasurer: Brad Wilson represents Iowa Citizens for
Community Improvement, where he previously served on staff. He is the
owner of Fireweed Farm, raising crops in organic rotation and marketing
locally his pasture poultry, lamb, and other livestock. Brad is an active
blogger at several sites, featuring a Farm Bill Primer,
a Food Crisis Primer, Issue Organizing Movement
Reviews, and other topics.
He also creates and features farm issue movies on his YouTube channel,
A Regeneration
of Culture.

Niaz
Dorry, at-large:Prior
to her position as executive director with NAMA, Niaz Dorry was with
Greenpeace for 11 years and in Ohio for two years, fighting alongside
her community against the Waste Technologies Industries hazardous waste
incinerator in East Liverpool. She has also worked with the Healthy
Building Network, helping to rebuild communities in the Gulf region
after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and is well aware of the problems
facing rural communities through concentration, lost markets and diminished
health care.

Joel
Greeno, at-large: Joel Greeno has been a Wisconsin Dairy Farmer
for 15 years and is the current President of the American Raw Milk Producers
Pricing Asssociation, an organization of dairy farmers dedicated to
establishing a raw milk price which returns to dairy producers their
cost of production plus a profit. ARMPPA is a milk-marketing agency
that holds no allegiance to any existing milk handler, cooperative or
corporation. Through ARMPPA, small and moderate-sized dairy producers
can survive as independent businesses and avoid vertical integration.

Margot
McMillen, at-large: Margot represents the Missouri Rural Crisis
Center on NFFC's board and
is an At-Large member of the Executive Committee. As a farmer, she raises
sheep and works with Missouri farmers to sell grains in the local community
rather than on the commodity market. She provides land for
farmers and interns to raise herbs and vegetables sold at numerous venues
through mid Missouri and St. Louis. She also teaches English at Westminster
College in Fulton, MO; hosts a weekly radio program on farm and rural
issues; and is a freelance writer providing the farmer perspective in
various journals in print and online.